Squarespace Going Private, Google AI Search Results and more

Hey friend,

There’s been a lot going on in the world of tech news this week. Notably, we found out that Squarespace is going private with a private equity firm, we got our minds blown by ChatGPT’s latest model, and Google has rolled out AI search results.

SQUARESPACE GOING PRIVATE

On Monday, we heard that UK-based firm Permira is going to help make Squarespace a private company again. Immediately after hearing this news, I was a little worried, but after reading more about the deal, talking to some of my business mentors, and of course dissecting it all with my fellow Squarespacers, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that this investment by Permira indicates that they see untapped growth potential in Squarespace.

In the agreement, Permira bought Squarespace stock at a premium and it seems like Anthony Casalena (Squarespace’s creator, founder and current CEO) and the leadership team will be sticking around. Both of these are positive indicators for the future.

Either way, the sale isn’t set to be finalized until the end of this year, and it will likely be a year+ before we see any significant changes that would impact the platform. So definitely not worth any current anxiety over.

If you’re curious and want to read more, here’s Squarespace’s announcement of the deal, and here’s a good article about the whole thing in TechCrunch.

CHATGPT 4o and Google’s AI Search Results

Also on Monday, OpenAI released ChatGPT 4o, their latest AI model. During the demo, the expressiveness and speed of the AI was incredible. I’ve been using it this week for my own coding work and can confirm, it’s pretty impressive. It feels more and more clear this will become a major way we interact with technology — the ramifications of which are totally unknown.

Then on Tuesday, Google rolled out their new AI Search results to everyone in the US. Now, when someone searches on Google, instead of seeing a list of links, Google will first provide an AI-generated answer to the question. For the vast majority of users, this is going to be a better experience. For businesses who have relied on that traffic as part of their marketing strategy, the future is, yet again, unknown.

As someone whose business gets a lot of traffic from Google, I’m still an optimist when it comes to this stuff. But I must admit I’m a bit exhausted thinking about it all. The pace of change is so rapid, and the usefulness of these new tools is so compelling, I’m finding it difficult to know where to focus my next bit of energy to help my business grow.

So while change is afoot in the website building world — with Squarespace going private or AI taking things over — I’m cautiously optimistic. Unknowns create opportunities, and I’m going to keep building things as I work it all out, with plenty of naps in between. I’m still not worried about losing my job to AI (yet), but I may start being a little more polite when I ask Siri to set a timer from now on… it can’t hurt to start getting on the good side of our future robot overlords sooner rather than later!

Keep Building,
Will

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